-S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats (NOBL) made up of companies that have increased their dividends every year for the last 25, has beaten the regular 500 index for the past five years, winning 18.41% over the latter’s 16.91%, while over 10 years the total return was 10.61% and the S&P 500’s was 8%.For example, Becton Dickinson (BDX) has increased has cranked up its dividends 43 years in a row.

-Bond guru, Jeff Gundlach of Doubleline Funds, thinks the expected September Fed rate increase is unlikely, given the mix of bad news and world markets uncertainty. “It is remarkable that people are talking about the Fed raising interest rates when the Fed’s own forecast for 2015 growth is lower than it has ever been and lower than the actuals for 2013 and 2014.”

-However, as recent 7/15/15 Fed Chair, Yellen’s rate guidance “If the economy evolves as we expect, economic conditions likely would make it appropriate at some point this year to raise the federal funds rate target. .”

-Investors should take an active approach to duration management and favor assets that have historically benefited from a rising rate environment. Specifically, high-yield corporate bonds and floating-rate loans may perform relatively well against that backdrop. . Negative-duration assets are also worth considering – for instance, mortgage-backed securities that would benefit from slowing mortgage refinancing as interest rates rise. We also think it’s important to take a very active approach to duration management and to have broad, diversified duration exposure. Also, when the Fed begins to tighten, quality stocks matter (earnings stability, healthy cash flow, strong balance sheet & DIVIDENDS).

-Do-It-Yourself Investors Feel Less Secure, Survey Says - A New Survey by Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual found Americans who manage their own finances feel less secure than those who use an advisor. The study was conducted in January 2015 by Harris Poll and included 5,474 American adults aged 18 and older

-Greece's geopolitical events tend to be bearish for risk assets and they will likely engender equity volatility and higher credit risk debt spreads. June 30th, 2015 was the first down day of over -2% for the year - since October 9th, 2014. Other negative factors include Puerto Rico’s unsustainable municipal debt (& large US holders) combined with China’s sharp stock market selloff.

-The Dow Jones Transportation Average hasn't set a new high all year and is down 12 percent since its record on Dec. 29th, 2014.

-Should prolonged market volatility persist with downward market trends marked by signals of investor capitulation, we will continue to increase allocations to strategies that benefit from negative market forces. For example, one of our manager strategies benefits from market weakness and volatility and returned +50% in 2008; this fund had a +16.9% annual inception return since 2006, returned +8% in 2014 and +6.56% year-to-date thru 7/6/15. This asset class category of funds all have daily liquidity and are tradable within our Charles Schwab Institutional platform.

-A general lack of conviction marked the first half of 2015 as the Greek debt crisis and the timing of the Fed’s interest rate increase seemed to preoccupy investors.For the first half of 2015, the S&P 500® Index eked out a 1.2% gain while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and core bond index were essentially flat.

-Author, Nathan Jaye, CFA has an insightful article about how different investments perform based on what the Federal Reserve policies are: "The Quick and the Fed" Research on how The Federal Reserve policy influences financial markets provides key findings for "astute" investors.

-Millionaire investors in particular showed the lowest confidence levels in 16 months: Affluent investors are worried about a “trifecta” of market conditions, the general economy and politics, the survey shows. Millionaire investors are most concerned with the market and slightly less concerned about the economy than non-millionaires, and both groups were about equally focused on the political climate (According to Spectrem Group).

-Global assets under management hit a record high of $74 trillion in 2014 with sustained inflows for 2015. Alternative assets will increase to $15.3 trillion by 2020 on a global basis, according to a new report from global consulting firm PwC.

-The value of domestic investments held by corporate defined-benefit plans totaled $3.1 trillion at the end of 2014, according to the Federal Reserve. That’s 5% more than a year earlier and more than five times as much as 30 years ago.

-In 2014 U.S.-based mutual funds drew in $102 billion. Stock funds pulled in $25 billion, while bond funds pulled in $44 billion, and the rest went into money-market funds according to the 2015 Investment Company Fact Book.

-Social Security payments make up at least half of the retirement income of 65% of retirees and comprise 90% of retirement income for over a third of retirees.